


Sometimes We Choose ...

by Eternal Scribe (Shadowcat)



Category: Arthurian Mythology, King Arthur (2004)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 22:12:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/pseuds/Eternal%20Scribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes we get to choose the way we leave this earth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sometimes We Choose ...

Guinevere lay on the bed, flanked by both Arthur and Lancelot. Each was holding a hand, and each man was doing his damnedest to be stoic. At the foot of her bed, stood the remaining knights of Arthur's original brothers. There weren't many, as age and warfare had thinned their ranks.

She saw Gawain standing there, grief etched in his face. They had just lost Galahad the previous day. Dagonet and Tristan stood with him, their eyes moving from where she lay, to Arthur, and back to her face.

Guinevere moved her head so her eyes could look into Arthur's eyes. "Why do you grieve so?"

"I do not want to lose you, My Queen," was his honest answer.

She squeezed his hand gently. "Death doesn't end who we are, beloved. It's just a new adventure."

She turned to Lancelot, who held her hand to his lips. "It played out differently this time, my love."

Lancelot looked startled. He frowned and met her eyes. "What do you mean?"

Guinevere smiled gently. "It's time for me to go."

Arthur shook his head. "No, Guinevere, you can't leave us. Please, wait for the healer. Hold on."

"Still the King, even when confronting death," she said softly. "Arthur, my love, you should have learned that even we cannot defeat or order death to go away."

"You shouldn't have been on the field," Lancelot said softly. "The strength you lost through illness had not yet returned."

"It was my choice," she said to him." I am a warrior...I come from the land and the sky. I was forged by the fires of my ancestors, and I flow with the tides of the sea." She looked up at him. "Besides, when I saw what was about to happen, I couldn't just sit on the outskirts and let you be killed. I have not spent these last several years loving both you and Arthur only to see you both fall on the same day."

There was no response to that. Galahad's wound had been the death blow meant for Arthur.

Guinevere sighed softly and tried to sit up. Both men moved to lift her up, and settled her in between the two of them. She was now cradled by the men she loved.

"I'm truly sorry about Galahad, Gawain," she whispered.

"No lady," Gawain said gently. "Save your strength. Just as you chose your actions, Galahad chose his. He wanted to save his King, and he did. That death is not on your head."

Guinevere nodded and closed her eyes. She was just so tired. She could hear those that had gone before her calling her name. She saw Galahad, ever the champion, waiting to escort her to the other side.

"I have had a good life," she said in a whisper. "I have lived amongst family, I have loved two glorious men. I have lived longer than most people in my old village have. I am content and I am happy to make the next step."

Arthur's eyes were full of tears that threatened to slip free. "Guinevere, my lady, my Queen..."

Both men cradled her. "Tell me again," she said softly. "Tell me again about the valiant knights that die in battle."

Tristan and Gawain moved to sit on the end of the bed. It was obvious that Guinevere was fading.

Lancelot's voice was full of tears that he was trying not to shed. "There is a legend among the Samartian Knights that whenever a knight is killed in battle, his soul returns as a free-spirited steed. He comes back to carry his brothers into battle and is there to watch out for them until the end of their days."

Guinevere opened her eyes to look at her beloved faces, then she closed her eyes again. "I think I'd prefer to come back as one of Tristan's hawks..." The whisper trailed off and her body was still.

Both Lancelot and Arthur cradled her body as they wept over her.

The Queen of Camelot was no more.


End file.
